A Tale of the New South

A Tale of the New South

In a thoughtful and ably written story of the South, entitled "The Colonel's Dream," Charles W. Chestnutt[sic] has sought to show the futility of the endeavor to graft Northern methods and ideals upon Southern minds and temperaments.

Colonel French, the descendant of a distinguished Southern family, but, in the beginning of the novel, a man of affairs in New York, revisits his native city during an enforced rest. There the dream begins. Struck by the business lethargy that prevails, he dreams of reform. He hopes to stimulate progress, build a cotton-mill, protect the negroes from the evils of the contract system, reconcile the clashing interests of the blacks and the whites. All in vain. His enterprise excites alarm, his interest in the negroes, ill-will. One by one the interests into which he energetically throws himself are laid down and in the end the colonel, disillusionized, returns to New York, conscious that his dream is over, and that to time alone must be entrusted the working of the agencies which will evolve a new South from the old.

Published by Doubleday, Page & Co.; $1.50.